The Key to a Zero
by Bebuzzu
Summary: Louise was ready to throw out her nickname when she would receive her first Familiar. Instead of a dragon or a griffin or something else like that, she gets a commoner dressed in some strange clothes and even has wings? Halloween! Sora. No pairings at all cuz screw romance.
1. Chapter 1 Summoning Ritual

**Felt like doing a Kingdom Heart fanfic which had to do with Halloween Sora but I didn't want it to do with celebrating Halloween so I previously attempted to make a story on how Jack Skellington adopted Sora... Which unfortunately didn't work out so well. Then I came across Familiar with a Zero crossovers and to be honesty, I fell in love with the stories! Well, mainly The Key to a Familiar. It's a really great story (You really need to continue it, Redhathackersin). **

**Note: I've edited Sora's Halloween outfit slightly. He doesn't have a jacket instead the white thing is like a poncho, he's got a black pouch which is full of what do you think is needed for Halloween and other stuff.**

**Louise was ready to throw out her nickname when she received her first Familiar. Instead of a dragon or a griffin or something else like that, she gets a commoner dressed in some strange clothes and even has wings?**

* * *

Chapter 1: Summoning Ritual

Today was the day when all second year mages received their first Familiar, their partner who are bound to their Summoner's for the rest of their life. Everybody was to get one, even Louise who unfortunately earned herself a title Louise the Zero due to her inability to cast even the simplest spells, often ending up in explosions.

'Today will be different. I'll prove myself to the others and show them I'm not a zero!' Louise thought and brought out her wand. Taking a deep breath, she began to chant.

"I, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, in the name of the Great Five Pentagon Powers, following my fate, summon a familiar."

For a moment, nothing happened. Until an explosion occurred. Students waved the smoke away from their face while muttering how Louise the Zero would always fail in her spells. However, Louise could see a figure through the smoke and for once, her hope had soared. It instantly deflated when she saw who was her familiar, a young boy probably around her age with dark brown spiky hair and ocean blue eye, the other was covered by an orange mask with two horns, a left triangular green eye, the right one was supposedly carved out and had a smile with several sharp teeth. His outfit consisted of a white small cloak with pointy edges covering the top of his black shirt, a zipper running down in the middle and matching black baggy pants reaching to his knee. Black and red bandages covered his legs and he had black shoes with pointed toes, a grey stripe on the middle. His hands were covered with white gloves that had a grey X and a brown leather belt attached with a small pouch on his hip. On his back were two black sticks and chained around his neck was a metal crown shaped pendant. In Louise's opinion, the boy standing right before everyone was nothing more than a commoner who wore the strangest clothes. Before she could ask for a re do, her teacher unfortunately beat her to it.

"Well then, Miss Vallière. I think its time you finished the ritual." He said, straightening his glasses.

"But Professor Colbert, nobody has heard of a Human Familiar! And I sure this thing here is a commoner! Please allow me to retry the ritual!" She pleaded. The Professor named Colbert only smiled sadly at her.

"I'm afraid not, Miss Vallière. The ritual is sacred and what you have summoned is your familiar. Now please complete the ritual." He said. The pink haired girl grumbled to herself and reluctantly stepped in front of the frowning boy, lowering herself up to eye level while ignoring all of the student's snickers.

"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Power, bless this humble being and make him my familiar." She chanted and leaned forward to kiss the boy. His eyes widened and quickly ducked so her lips only met his forehead before you could say 'Potato'. His mouth was about to speak before pain suddenly erupted from his left arm, causing him to scream and revealing fangs in his teeth. The boy yanked his left sleeve up to show strange glowing runes inscribing itself onto the skin. The students laughed at this but were instantly silent as Professor Colbert speed walked to the sprawling male, inspecting the runes on the arm.

"Interesting..." He murmured and then broke into a smile, "Congratulation, Miss Vallière. You have successfully completed the Springtime Summoning Ritual." The pain had stopped exploding in the boy's arm and he rolled down his sleeve. He began to mutter but Louise couldn't understand a thing of it. Soon, everyone began to leave the area with their own Familiar.

"Well, let's go Familiar." She walked only a few steps before turning around to see the boy wasn't following her, instead just standing and looking around. Angrily, she marched back to him and poked very hard on his chest. "I said we're going!" He only stood there with a puzzled expression. Louise gave a frustrated sigh and dragged him away by the shirt to the castle. Along the way, she decided to be nice enough by chatting but it turns out, her Familiar failed to understand what she had just said. The boy had also tried to talk but like Louise, words almost like an incantation rolled off his tongue.

"Ugh, this is getting us nowhere!" She yelled when they arrived to her room, whipped out her wand and pointed it to the boy, chanting. This caused another explosion and sent the boy tumbling backwards.

"Ow! What the heck was that for?!" He growled, jumping back up to his feet and rubbing the back of his head.

"Finally, we can communicate. I am Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière and you're my Familiar." She said.

"The name's Sora. Just Sora. And why are you calling me Familiar?" Sora asked.

The pinkette sighed, sitting down on her bed and began to explain, "A familiar is a creature that becomes a Mage's servant by a contract. Today was the Springtime Summoning Ritual where second year mages like me summons creatures to be our familiar." Her face slowly twisted into anger, "I wanted a dragon or a griffin! Instead, I got a lowly commoner to be mine!" She fumed, running her fingers in her hair and hopped off the bed, her back facing Sora. She had started to change into other clothes and Sora had panic on his face. He was a guy, he wasn't supposed to be watching this.

"Wait, what are you doin-" He felt fabric slammed against his face, covering his vision thankfully. After a few seconds, he cautiously peeled off the clothes off his face to see his 'Master' wearing a purple nightgown.

"Familiar, go wash those clothes by tomorrow morning." She ordered, climbing into her bed. Sora just stood there dumbfounded before she screamed "Now!" dangerously and sped off.

'_Man, this is crazy. I was supposed to help out dad with the experiment but I get sent here! And that pink girl is crazy, making me wash her clothes..._' He paused for a moment before realising something, "... I don't even know how to wash my own clothes." He sweatdropped and kept walking, lost in thought. He had soon bumped into another due to not paying attention to his surrounding.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, very sorry! Please forgive me!" A female who he bumped into was on the floor and bowing very fast.

"Um... Sorry, I kinda wasn't paying attention... You know you can stop now." He said, helping the female up on her foot. She dressed like a maid and had short black hair that was held back by the maid head band, and matching black eyes.

"I'm terribly sorry!" The maid repeated again.

"I said you can stop." He sweatdropped and looked down on the pile of clothes he was supposed to wash. The maid perfectly read his expression and asked, "Do you need those clothes washed?".

"Yeah... I don't even know how to wash my own." He laughed sheepishly.

"It's no problem! I'll show you where we do the washing." The maid giggled, walking off with Sora following her.

"Thanks! By the way, I'm Sora." He introduced.

"I'm Siesta." Siesta introduced back. While walking, the two had come across a blonde boy flirting with a brunette. Sora had noticed Siesta had a dreamy look on her face and nudged her gently with his elbow to move on. Eventually they had arrived at the place where the maids did the Laundry and Siesta even had the fun to teach Sora how to use the cleaning tools.

"Thanks, Siesta!" He grinned and ran off with his arm carrying the neatly folded clothes. Siesta waved off and walked away to attend to her maid duties. The black sticks on Sora's back began to unfold into bat wings as Sora yawned in exhaustion.

"It feels nice to stretch out these wings." He yawned, using the wings as a silent accelerator and entered his 'Master's room quietly, placing the clothes on the bed side table. He glanced at the corner of the floor which had hay in it. Sora shrugged, a bed was a bed and soon fell asleep.

* * *

**This was rushed, I know. And Short. But hey, my chapters are often short. I just love Sora in his Halloween form but everytime I try to find fanfics that has to do with that, all I find are yaoi (please no. I'm sick of tired of seeing them every where I see) and modern AU. Well, hoped you enjoyed. **


	2. Chapter 2 Explosive Fun

**Ermagerd, thanks for the review Kh-Hardcorefan4483! Made my day, seriously! So yeah, I forgot to include in the last chapter something important which is in this chapter. Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Heart or Familiar of a Zero.**

**Edit: I forgot to mention Sora uses the Kingdom Heart. Why? Because Sora doesn't really know what it is (he received it while he was at Halloween Town.) **

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Chapter 2: Explosive Fun

Sora officially hated mornings. Why? His supposed Master, Louise whatever her long name was, had screamed at him for not waking her up in sunrise despite the fact she had never told him to do so. After that, she had started to change in front of him much to Sora's nerve.

"Can you stop doing that, seriously? I'm a guy and I'm not supposed to see things like this." Sora said, his eye was shut to shield himself from the sight.

"What are you waiting for, familiar?! Dress me!" Her voice was close enough to be qualified as a growl with a commanding tone and threw clothes at the male. Sora merely sat on his hay bed for a while with the clothes covering his face before throwing the clothes back at Louise and ran out of the door by the time she pulled it off.  
"THAT STUPID DISOBEDIENT FAMILIAR! THAT IS IT, NO BREAKFAST FOR THAT TRASH!" Sora heard Louise shrieked and groaned slightly.

'_She's even more annoying than Lock, Shock and Barrel altogether.'_ He thought.

"Looks like Louise the Zero can't even handle her own Familiar." One of the passing student teased, the other laughing.

"What do you expect? She is a Zero after all."

"Do you think she even summoned that thing?" This made Sora slightly annoyed, ever since he was 'summoned', everyone had always referred him as a thing, not a living being.

"Course not! She must've hired that commoner to pretend to be a familiar." The students howled with laughter at this. Soon, Sora found himself outside along with other creatures that he assumed were Familiars. Like Louise said, he was punished with not having breakfast with her and forced to stay outside in broad daylight. In broad daylight. Back at his home, sunlight were very rare since it was usually cloudy and dark. If there was no clouds, the sky would be dominated by twilight. Sora had never felt daylight before and his first impression on it wasn't pleasant. Sitting underneath a tall tree where there was shade, he looked at the different Familiars in curiosity. He was too focused on a floating eyeball in fascination to notice a blue dragon trying to get his attention until it slapped him on the face with its tail.

"Ow, what the-" Sora immediately stopped when he saw the pair of emerald eyes staring into his ocean blue. The two engaged in a staring contest until Sora ultimately won, the blue dragon rubbing its sore eyes.

"I win~" Sora smirked teasingly at the blue dragon.

"Kyuu..." The dragon whined. A blue haired girl with red rimmed glasses approached the pair and scooped up the dragon who comfortably nudged its head against her arm.

"Hey, aren't you that girly I saw yesterday? What's your name?" Sora asked.

"Tabitha." The blue haired girl named Tabitha replied.

"There you are, familiar!" A voice too well known to Sora yelled.

"Here comes miss prissy." He smiled nervously as the pink haired mage speed walked up to him.

"Class will start soon so carry my books!" Louise dumped two stacks of spell books in the boy's arm and dragged him away.

* * *

The room that Sora was looking at was in his opinion, completely dull and boring. It wasn't as festive as he first thought and you could see a bored yawn about to escape his mouth. Students filled the table, all facing towards a single one where a brown haired woman in about her 40 wearing a purple wizard hat and cloak. Behind her was a large black board with so many diagrams of pentagons scribbled on it, supposedly to explain magic. To Sora, it was plain gibberish.

"I know everyone is aware of this but I'll repeat this again, magic consists of four elements which is fire, earth, water wind and then the lost element void. Which is five in total." The lady explained, using her wand as a pointing stick on the board. "Among them, the Earth element is the most important, governing the creation of all matter. Miss Valliere, you understood all that yes?" The teacher eyed at Louise. The mage nodded.

'_Why did you bring me to this boring place? I don't see any other familiars around.' _Sora thought and rubbed his tired eye.

"Now, how about a small demonstration of transmuting this stone from someone? Louise, would you like to do the honours?" As soon as those words left the teacher, everybody but Louise and Sora gasped in horror, and a red haired student with brown eyes stood up immediately.

"Professor Chevreuse, I don't think you should let-" She started to say.

"Miss Zerbst, were you going to call Miss Valliere the Zero again? I assure you, even if she is indeed a Zero, this transmutation is hardly a challenge! I'm certain she won't fail in this." Chevreuse smiled confidently at Louise who smiled back gratefully in return. Sora had finally snapped out of his small world into reality and noticed everyone had taken cover behind their desk.

"Hey, what's going on? How come Louise is called the Zero?" He whispered to the red haired female next to him.

"You're about to see why." She spat with hatred on the tip of her tongue before it turned into a seductive smile, "So hey, I'm Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst but call me Kirche." She ended with a wink that gave Sora a slight shudder.

"I'm Sora Skellington." The brunette introduced himself back.

"I suggest you take cover under the table." Kirche advised, her eyes narrowing. Sora, being the curious kind, remained at his position. Louise had began to chant, her wand glowing with magic. But then sparks suddenly flew out of the magic into the stone, making it grew larger and larger until...

**BOOM!**

From transmuting a stone turned into a massive explosion that destroyed the classroom. Everyone was fanning the smoke away from their hiding spot. Unfortunetely, Chevreuse was not so lucky as she was the closest to the cause, causing her to be unconscious. Sora stood where he was sitting before, glancing at the center of the explosion with a huge grin.

"That was awesome!" Sora cheered at first but one glare from everyone made it slip away. Everybody excluding Sora glared at the pinkette who was brushing dust off her clothes.

"I supposed I messed up slightly." Louise said sheepishly.

"Slightly?! How is this slightly messed up?!" One student shouted angrily, rising up behind his desk.

"Just give up already!"

"No wonder you're called Louise the Zero!"

"Your success rate was always ZERO!"

All of those protests and shouts from the students made Sora see the answer. Truthfully, he was delighted to see such explosion, he had never seen such power in one but something told him to not scream in happiness like last time.

"Do you see why we call her Louise the Zero?" Kirche asked the brown haired boy and walked away with the other students. Sora looked back at his master to see sadness and disappointment.

"... It doesn't seem right to just call her a Zero though." Sora murmured and walked towards Louise. His view of his master had drastically changed from being annoying, bratty and spoiled to a girl who merely wanted to prove herself. "Hey, let's go back to your room... Master." Sora quickly added the last part to comfort the mage. When he escorted her to her room, she slammed the door shut in his face. Sora felt slightly down at the turns of event.

'_Then again, I can explore the castle!'_ He thought excitedly but the thought was quickly erased when he heard his stomach growl.

"Aw man, I'm hungry. I wonder if Siesta got something I can eat." The boy said to himself and flew off to find his friend. When he found her, Siesta was more than happy to give Sora food as she led him to the kitchen.

"Oh my pumpkins, this place is huge." Sora gaped at the largest kitchen he'd probably ever seen. There were thousands of cooks bustling about, all of them occupied with their own duties.

"Say, Sora? Where do you come from?" Siesta asked curiously, handing a loaf of bread to the brunette. Sora had already devoured half of the bread when he recieved it and scratched his head in thought.

"From Halloween Town." He replied. "There, we kinda take care of Halloween. Like you know, prepare it for the others?" He continued and shoved the other half of the bread down his throat, it was rather strange how he didn't choke on it.

"Halloween Town? I'd never heard of it before." Siesta said.

"Yeah, its the same with me on how I never knew about this place until now." Sora wondered, "Say, why don't I help you out? I don't think my master will come out of her room until her temper tantrum is gone." He offered.

"Thank you Sora, it would really help out." Siesta smiled. "All we have to do is to serve the food to the nobles." She instructed, handed him two plates of food and lead him to the Mess Hall.

"Nobles?" Sora asked confusedly. Siesta shot him a disbelief look, surely he lacks common knowledge but he should know about nobles. Then she mentally reminded herself that Sora told her he had never heard of their place so it would make sense he wouldn't know anything about nobles and commoners.

"Nobles are the Superior class who are the only ones that uses magic. Everyone in this castle is a noble." Siesta explained, watching Sora nod slowly.

"What about Commoners? Everyone always refers me as Familiar or Commoner." Sora questioned, somehow balancing one plate on his head.

"Commoners are those who do not have magic. All workers in the castle are Commoners, such as myself." She continued and then finally noticed the balanced plate on Sora's head. "Sora, please that plate off your head!" Sora laughed slightly and did as told.

"I am an expert at balancing things on top of my head." He pouted, "So how does someone be a noble?"

"To be a Noble, one must have magic of course. But they would also need wealth." Siesta answered, passing a plate to a table. "I believe Lord Guiche would like that plate you're holding, Sora." She gestured at a blonde male flirting with another female with blonde hair.

"Where have I seen him before?" Sora wondered. Before he could go to the blonde boy named Guiche, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see the a girl with long brown hair, amethyst eyes and wore a brown cloak around her uniform.

"Excuse me, have you seen Lord Guiche?" She asked. It was then Sora noticed a basket in her hand that made him remember where had he seen Guiche before.

"Why yes, I have. If you happen to go to that table," Sora pointed at the table where Guiche and the other blonde girl were sitting at, "He is over there. Would you like me to take you to him?" A mischievous smile was tugging at his lip while he could not wait to see a reaction. The girl nodded and followed Sora over to the table.

"Here sir, is your cake and a guest." Sora said with a tone of mischief. Guiche turned around and to his horror was the brunette who was fuming.

"Lord Guiche, who is this?" Both girls asked, thick with anger and jealousy.

"Now, now... Katie and Montmorency. Let's just sort this out." Guiche stammered, placing his hands in front of him to calm down the two females. Sora was about to leave until noticing two rose coloured envelopes on the ground near his foot.

"I believe this is yours, Guiche." Sora said, dumping the love letters on top of the blonde's head. The effect was immediate.

"YOU BASTARD!" Both females shrieked and slapped him as hard as they could, leaving him two red hand prints on his face, and stormed off.

'_That's what you get for dating two girls._' Sora thought and returned to Siesta who was now shaking madly.

"Siesta? What's wrong?" He asked. Sora had failed to notice the entire hall had gone silent from hearing the shouts of the girls.

"You... How dare you..." Guiche growled angrily, rising up to face the brown haired boy. "Breaking two maiden's heart... Despicable!"

"It's not my fault you were dating two girls." Sora replied nonchalantly. Siesta was shocked, her friend was actually arguing with a noble?!

"Why you...! It looks like you need a lesson on how to behave in front of nobles such as I." Guiche pointed his rose wand at the other, "I, Guiche de Gramont, challenge you to a duel!" Students gasped at this, wondering what would happen next.

"Just apologise, Sora! To duel against a noble is suicide for a commoner!" Siesta whispered, worriedly.

"Sure, blondie." Was Sora's answer. Everyone including Siesta gasped again.

"Vestri Court, 30 minutes from now on!" Guiche replied and with one swish of his cloak, he speed walked away. Things were slowly going back to normal, except for Siesta and Sora.

"Sora, why did you accept!?" Siesta whispered.

"He started it!" Sora replied accusingly.

"You should know better tha-" The maid started.

"Listen, Siesta. If I didn't accept this, I'd be the laughing stock of everyone! Course that already happened but, I can get Louise her place like this! Just trust me, Siesta. I'll beat that blondie before he'll beat me." Sora said. Silence descended between the two before Siesta realised something.

"Sora... Do you even know where the Vestri Court is?" She asked.

"Nope." Sora answered. Siesta sighed, it was quite hard to believe he would be able to win against Guiche. But she told him the direction to the area whether she liked it or not.

"I must tell Miss Valliere of what happened." Siesta mumbled and ran to Sora's master, Louise.

* * *

The Vestri Court was bathed in sunlight, much to Sora's displeasure. Due to being outside for a while, Sora was able to see in the light, just not as well as he could in the dark.

"I commend you for coming to your doom instead of running away like a cowardly commoner such as you, Commoner." Guiche sneered.

"Can we just start? I didn't come out here to talk you know." Sora frowned annoyed, folding his arm.

"How dare you! You need to learn how to behave in front of me, Commoner." Guiche growled and brought out his rose wand. Waving it, a single petal fell and created a column of light as soon as it made contact with the ground. The light dispersed, revealing an armoured figure about the same height as Guiche. "I am Guiche De Gramont, fourth son of the famous General Gramont. My runic name is Bronze. Therefore this Bronze Valkyrie shall be your opponent." Sora was not slightly intimidated by the towering armour, instead yawning.

'_That armour is too cliché. No sense of spookiness._' Sora thought. There was a small flash of light and he felt the familiar weight of his weapon in his arm which was in the shape of a key, only larger._  
_

"Is that a giant key?!"

"What kind of magic was that?!"

"Isn't he a commoner though?!"

He heard the students murmur in confusion.

"You think you're protected by an oversized key?! Ha, as is!" Guiche laughed. With a small flick of his wrist, the Valkyrie moved into life and threw one first at Sora who caught it with his free hand. Sora narrowed his eye, using his bat wings to push the Valkyrie back. More of the students mumbled in awe. The Valkyrie rose back up from its fallen position and began to throw a barrage of punches at him.

"This way, Miss Valliere!" Siesta cried as the pink haired mage followed closely behind her. However, they were rather too late as the duel had already started with Sora blocking the punches with an oversized key.

"Familiar! What are you doing!?" Louise shrieked.

"Eh?! Louise?!" Sora faced his fuming master. Unfortunately, the Valkyrie took the distraction and punched Sora where the mask was.

"Ow." Sora rubbed his head and surprisingly, the mask did not break. "So I can't go easy any more, can I?"

"Easy? Hmph, that looks like your normal power." Guiche scoffed arrogantly.

"Guiche, stop this nonsense now!" Louise shouted.

"Absolutely not, Zero! The duel had already started!" The blonde boy replied and turned to his Valkyrie again. Louise had stiffened up from being called a Zero again.

"Sorry, did I hear the word Zero?" Sora fake smiled to the blonde boy.

"Yes, you miserable Commoner. What about it?" He answered irritatedly.

"Oh I see..." Sora's voice was shaking in anger, the orange mask transforming into a red bomb like thing with a large, fleur-de-lis symbol near its top. Sora angrily swung his weapon at the Valkyrie until it was reduced to pieces. Guiche could only look at disbelief at the remains of his Valkyrie.

"You insolent commoner!" He shouted and dropped more petals from his rose wand. Pillars of light sprouted from the ground, the same armoured figures appearing but with swords.

"Guiche, duels aren't supposed to be lethal!" Katie, being one of the bystanders yelled out. The mage however ignored her and made all of the armours to attack Sora. Louise gasped, completely certain that her familiar would not survive the attack.

"THUNDAGA!" Sora shouted, flying towards the sky and released several columns of electric from the sky. Where all of the Valkyries were previously standing only remained as ashes. Several students were surprised to see powerful magic at work. Siesta sighed in relief that her friend had won the duel. Louise was probably the most shocked and surprised of all. She had never known Thunder being a part of the magic elements nor that her Familiar could use magic. Suddenly jealousy welled up inside her, how she couldn't use magic and her familiar could. When all of the smoke cleared away, Sora stood there with his giant key pointed at the cowering Guiche, his mask returned to its previous state.

"Take that insult back." He hissed thick with anger.

"I-I-I t-t-take it b-back..." Guiche stuttered and promptly fainted from fear.

"Familiar!" Louise yelled, running towards Sora.

"Hey, Louise! I made him take- Ow!" Sora yelped.

"To my room, now!" Louise dragged away the helpless boy by his ear. The students immediately surrounded the unconscious Guiche, wondering if he was alright.


	3. Chapter 3 Aros

**Disclaimer: Don't own Kingdom heart or Familiar of Zero**

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Chapter 3: Aros

"Why didn't you tell me you could use magic?" Louise demanded once she shut the door behind them.

"You never asked." Sora shrugged. As much as Louise hated to admit, he was correct as she and the others immediately assumed by his looks he couldn't perform magic.

"W-Well...!" She sputtered, "Which noble family do you come from?" She finished, worried that she had summoned a noble. Afterall, nobles are the only one who can perform magic right?

"What's with nobles anyway? So what if I can use magic? Doesn't exactly mean I come from a noble family." He muttered and laid down on his hay bed.

"I asked you a question, familiar." The pinkette growled.

"Ok, I'm not from one." Sora sighed.

"That's impossible. Only nobles can perform magic and I've never seen thunder being one of the elements." She huffed.

_'It means your school doesn't know anything._' He thought annoyed and closed his tired eye.

"Familiar, don't go to sleep until you tell me how you can use magic! Familiar!" Louise screeched but Sora had already fell asleep in a record of 5 seconds. She was about to slap him awake until a yawn had escaped her. Planning to punish him tomorrow, she changed out of her uniform and climbed into her four poster bed.

* * *

Louise opened her eyes to find herself standing on a stained glass pillar with an abyss of darkness surrounding it. In the centre of the pillar was a large yellow heart surrounded by circles with a crown in each.

_'Where is this?'_ She wondered, glancing around her to see only the darkness. Her eyes soon came across a small boy resting his head on one of his knee with both of his hands used as a pillow for the chin. He had brown spiky hair similar to her familiar and wore a white t-shirt with blue lining, red shorts with darker red pocket on both sides and yellow strapped sandals.

_'What's that kid doing here?_' Louise walked towards the child and started to shake him slightly.

"Huh?" He slurred, his eyes opening to reveal sapphire blue eyes. "Oh, someone finally visits me!" the boy clapped and jumped to his feet with a huge smile plastered on his face.

"Do you know where we are?" Louise felt stupid to ask someone who is younger than herself, possibly no older than 4 or so.

"Of course I do! This is the Di-" He started but the words faded away before it could reach her ears.

"What? Sorry, I couldn't hear you." Louise frowned.

"I said, this is the Di-" Once again, the words dissapeared leaving Louise confused.

"Can you stop whispering?" She asked.

"I'm not whispering." The boy pouted, "Maybe you're just deaf, miss." He laughed at his own humour while Louise was fuming inside.

"How dare you! Do you know who I am?!" She shouted.

"Louise the Zero, isn't it?" He answered, folding his arms. "But it's really Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, right?" Louise was left dumbfounded at this.

"H-How did you..." She stuttered.

"S-E-C-R-E-T, secret!" He said in a sing song voice, placing a finger on his lip to emphasize it. "So will you play with me, miss?" Louise was taken aback by this. First he insults her by saying she was deaf, then refused to tell her how he knew her name and now he wants to play? Absolutely not.

"No way." The mage angrily replied, turning her back to the boy only to see him standing in front of her.

"I promise it'll be fun." He pleaded with big blue puppy eyes.

"What could be fun on this pillar that has absolutely nothing in it?" She snorted, folding her arms. Suddenly, the stained glass began to break away into golden sand as the darkness was lifted as light poured in. Palm trees sprouted from the ground and grew incredibly fast. Water rose from the sand, giving the place a salty scent and buildings were constructed with wood all by themselves. Louise gaped at the change of scenery, mostly how fast it transformed.

The boy placed his hands behind his head and grinned side to side. "Now we can play whatever we want!"

"I'm impressed. Such powerful magic for a kid like you." Louise murmured, forming a smile.

"I'm not kid!" He pouted, "I'm Aros. And this isn't magic." He paused, tapping his temple in thought. "Well, it might be." He quickly added after.

Louise's eyebrows arched in surprise. "If it isn't magic, then what could possibly turn that pillar into this place?"

"I don't know. I just think of a place I want to go and then this place turns into that." Aros shrugged. Small laughters that did not belong to the duo caught their ears. Louise turned around to see two small children playing in the sand.

"If you wanted to play, why not with those kids over there?" Louise asked. The two children ran up towards the pair but to the mage's surprisement, they had no face at all. As soon as they made contact with Aros, they dissapeared into dust which was carried away by the wind.

"That's why. Every time I try to play with them, they are gone like that." Aros slumped sadly at this. "I feel like I know them but I just can't remember."

"So you're the only one here, am I correct?" She guessed. Aros nodded in response. "Alright, what do you want to play?" She sighed, rubbing her temple with her index finger.

Aros stood in silence for a moment before slamming the bottom of his hand against his other hand's palm. "I know! Why not play hide and seek? That way, you can explore the place while playing?" He grinned childishly. "I'm so smart, sometimes I amaze myself."

"Then what's hundred plus one?" Louise challenged. Aros was speechless for a while before muttering "I don't know" in defeat.

"You're the seeker and I'm hiding. Count to 20, missy!" The boy beamed before running off, presumably to find himself a nice hiding place. After counting, Louise glanced around hoping to see the hider.

'_This will be a breeze. He's only a kid afterall.'_ Louise thought, humming to herself while checking areas which she thought children would hide in. Thirty minutes later, Aros was nowhere to be seen.

"I looked everywhere! Where could he be?" She wondered out loud. Another few minutes later, the mage was still unable to find him.

"Agh, I give up!" Louise cried out in frustration.

"You give up already, missy?" Aros's voice said rather disappointingly. Louise turned her head around to see the boy standing with his arms folded. "That's no fun at all!"

"There you are! I've been looking all over! Where did you even hide?" She asked crossly.

"I was hiding where you should've opened your eyes. You're looking but not seeing." Aros replied back.

"What do you mean I'm seeing but I'm not looking? Seeing and looking are exactly the same thing." Louise retorted.

"No they're not. Looking, you're just looking for big obvious stuffs. Seeing is when you're using sight for even small details." Aros explained. "You were only looking for where normal children would hide, right?" Louise felt her cheek grow red at this.

"So I need to pay attention to the smallest detail, right Aros?" The said boy nodded at this.

"Let's try again! This time, you have to start seeing! Count to 20!" He instructed and ran off again. It took Louise an hour to find Aros who happened to be hiding on a tree branch.

"You took so long." Aros lamented, bulging his cheek a bit.

"Well, excuse me but I had to study at every small detail. Isn't that what you said?" Louise frowned.

"To see, you need to study details yeah. But you also need to be quick. Sometimes you don't have enough time to inspect every itty bitty detail." He answered. "Now it's my turn to find you!" He quickly ran over to a big rock and started to count with his hands covering his eyes. Louise smirked at this and dashed off to find her brilliant hiding spot. She decided on a small cave which was hidden by several leaves.

'_There's no way he can find me now._' She grinned at the thought.

"20! Ready or not, here I come!" She heard Aros yell. In less than 30 minutes, the boy had actually managed to sniff out the mage from her hiding spot.

"How did you even find me? My hiding spot was perfect!" Louise eyed the boy suspiciously. "You didn't cheat, did you?"

Aros shook his head and stuck his tongue out. "Nope, I was seeing! You kinda left foot prints on the ground. And then there was a bunch of leaves that was where you were hiding. You need a better hiding spot if you want to beat the master of hide and seek!" He said in a boastful tone. Light suddenly consumed the place, reverting it to a stained glass pillar. Louise raised her hand but immediately stopped as soon as it entered her sight. It was glowing brightly.

"What's going on, Aros?!" She asked in panic.

"You're leaving." He answered, depressed. "Will you come back and play with me again?" He asked, his eyes shining for hope.

Louise paused before she said anything, thinking over what he had requested. Then breaking a smile, she replied "Sure, I'll come back."

"Pinky promise?" Aros held his pinky out. Louise sighed at his childish antics and did the pinky promise shake with him, just before she dissapeared in an explosion of light. Aros stared at where she was previously with mixed emotions inside. He sighed and shifted his gaze to the never ending darkness.

* * *

**Lol, is short chappie again. Sorry for writers block earlier. Well hoped you enjoyed the chappie.**


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